Join us on Friday,July 27th,2018 @10pm -12pm at 3711 W.Chicago ave. As an employer or job seekers for youth 19 to 14 years old. If you are interested email or call us blocktogether@gmail.com or 773-940-2319.

March 13, 2018

In 2011 Blocks Together worked with groups and legislators across the city to pass Public Act 96-0803 which reformed Chicago Public Schools School action and Capital planning process. The act:

Created the Dec. 1st deadline for School action announcements to give families more advanced warnings from Chicago Public Schools.

Mandated school transition plans to create more dialogue and transparence for impacted families.

Mandatory community meetings around school actions, required three community meetings.

Mandatory bi-annual reviews of building conditions to keep updated conditions of buildings online on the CPS website.

Mandatory updated online and public documents of Capital spending for years out.

The creation of 10 Year Master Facility Plan

Despite these many reforms there are still many things that CPS can do, and should be doing differently. House Bill 5721 aims to strengthen process and practice that will prevent unfair and haphazard decisions for CPS buildings and students. Here is a fact sheet regarding HB 5721 and an endorsement form for organizations wishing to support the bill.

House Bill 0572- Chicago Public Schools Facility Reform

House Bill 0572 Amends the Chicago School District Article of the School Code to improve Facility planning and actions.

Adds to the definition of “school action” to include new school openings incorporating Charter Schools and Turnarounds. This ensures that school communities have advanced notice of any school actions similar to the December 1st deadline for other CPS schools, allowing for families that may be impacted know before school admission deadlines pass.

Requires the 10-year educational facility master plan to include specific plans for special education programs, early childhood education programs, career and technical education programs, and any other programs that are space sensitive to avoid space irregularities. This ensures long term planning should incorporate as much data and information to support schools in the best planning for academic success.

Requires public input with a capital improvement hearing that shall discuss the district’s annual capital budget to increase community engagement and transparency around Capital spending for the district that includes information on what capital dollars are being used and which projects and the need for those projects with a timeline to address critical facility and programmatic capital needs of every district building.

Adds to the requirements of a school transition plan when school actions do take place for the district to track students and evaluate where resources should go based on students’ performance after school actions.

A communications and community involvement plan for each community that includes engagement of students, school-based personnel, parents, and key stakeholders throughout the community for more community input in the long term planning for school communities avoiding facility decisions that can negatively impact students.

Any school building disposition should include advanced planning to prevent vacant schools through advanced planning of potential school vacancies.

Work with school communities experiencing under enrollment that includes joint use for space, attendance boundaries to maximize enrollment of additional students, cease plans that will impact enrollment when not necessary.